Railway journal lubricator structure



Aug. 18., 1942. J. J. HENNESSY RAILWAY JOURNAL LUBRICATOR STRUCTURE Filed May 21, 1941 FIGZ.

' INVENTOR. JAMES J. HENNESSY Patented Aug. 18, 1942 RAILWAY JOURNAL LUBRICATOR STRUCTURE James J. Hennessy, Montclair, N. J.

Application May 21, 1941, Serial No. 394,441

11 Claims.

This invention relates to mechanical lubricators for railway axle boxes such as are generally used on locomotive driver axles, and the invention consists in structure for draining surplus lubricant, escaping from the journal bearing, back to the lubricant cellar.

Mechanical lubricators of the class described usually are arranged to feed an adequate supply of lubricant to the journal under unfavorable conditions, such as low temperatures, slow movement of the locomotive, and close fit and relatively small play of the axle back and forth in the journal. Hence, when the conditions are more favorable for pumping lubricant to the journal, there will be an excess amount of lubricant supplied which tends to travel longitudinally of the journal beyond the bearing and to escape from the lubricator and be lost. The main object of the present invention is to reduce such loss by trapping a maximum amount of surplus lubricant and returning it to the lubricant cellar. This and other detailed objects of the invention are attained by the structure illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which- Figure l is a vertical longitudinal section through a locomotive axle box and bearing with a mechanical lubricator applied thereto and showing the axle journal and adjacent portion of the wheel hub.

Figure 2 is an end view of the box and cellar with a portion of the bearing and journal sectioned, the line of view being taken approximately on the line 2--2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged detailed isometric view of the adjacent portions of the box, brass, cellar and associated elements, the box and brass being sectioned horizontally, as indicated by the line 3-3 in Figure l, to more clearly illustrate the construction.

Figure 4 is a detailed vertical section taken on the line 4-4 of Figure l.

The wheel axle is indicated at I and is provided with the journal portion 2 and mounts the driving wheel, the hub of which is indicated at 3. The axle box top wall 4 and side walls I are recessed to receive the journal bearing 5, which fits around the upper portion of the journal and the downwardly facing longitudinal edges in. of which are seated upon upwardly facing ledges 6 in the box side walls 1. A plate 4a extends between side walls 1 and supports the lubricating device which includes a lubricant cellar having a bottom wall 8, side walls 9, front end wall l and a rear end wall ll,

The outer end of bearing 5 is recessed as iIidicated at l3, the inner end [4 of the recess be ing disposed inwardly from the plane of cellar end wall Ill. The outer end of the recess, which corresponds to the outer end of the bearing, projects outwardly beyond said plane. This general arrangement of bearing recess and cellar end wall is disclosed in Patents -No. 2,107,413 and No. 2,191,468 issued to the present applicant February 8, 1938, and February 27, 1940, respectively.

Bearing 5 is provided with a transverse groove 20 spaced inwardly from recess l3 and cooperating with recess 13 to form a rib 2|. Near each lower forward corner of the bearing, rib 2| and the peripheral face of recess l3 are grooved, as indicated at 22, to provide a downwardly and inwardly extending channel, the inner end of which merges with groove 20.

Preferably, each driving box side wall 1 is recessed to provide a downwardly facing ledge 12 overlying the upper edge of the corresponding cellar side wall 9. Welded or otherwise secured to ledge I2 is a member [5 forming a depending lip overlapping the inner face of the adjacent cellar side wall 9. The forward end of member I5 extends beyond the cellar end wall [0 and forms an upwardly facing trough 16 having a bottom inclined downwardly and rearwardly from the extreme end of the member.

Lubricant between the journal and the bearing and moving towards the front end of the bearing will be trapped, at least in part, by groove 20 and drained down to the cellar. That portion of the lubricant which feeds past rib 2| will tend to form a peripheral ring on the projecting portion of the journal and will be thrown off in drops against the peripheral face of recess l3 and run down the same. That portion of the recess located inwardly of the cellar end wall ID will drain'its lubricant oil into the cellar over the flat portion of member l5, but some of the lubricant will tend to travel towards the outer end of recess l3 and ordinarily would escape between the wheel hub and the hub face of the box and cellar. But the trough portion l6 of member 15 intercepts such oil and drains it back into the cellar. This function of trough I6 is facilitated by the insertion of a filler element l'l extending from the forward face l8 of. the axle box to the wheel hub and from the upper edge of the projecting portion of element Hi to the plane of ledge 6 where element ll meets the lower edge 5a of the bearing.

The lubricating device includes pump strue ture indicated generally at P and a distributor indicated generally at D, but these elements do not in themselves constitute the present invention but are indicated to complete the showing of parts which operate in combination with the structure previously described to assure an adequate supply of lubricant to the journal and its bearing without necessitating unduly frequent addition of lubricant to the cellar or its reservoir 36.

With the present device, the journal is provided with sufficient lubricant at all times, and the increased amount of lubricant pumped to the journal due to the generally increased speed of operating trains is taken advantage of to maintain a greater quantity of oil between the journal and its bearing without undue loss of oil. The increased supply of oil not only lubricates the journal and bearing and prevents wear, but also cushions the journal in its bearing preventing pounding of the box when there is clearance between the journal and the bearing and before the bearing has worn to a close fit on the journal.

This application is a continuation in part of an application filed by the present inventor April 18, 1940, Serial No. 330,242, which disclosed, all of the features of the structure illustrated and described herein except the peripheral groove 26 and downwardly and inwardly inclined channel 22.

While some of the elements of this combination may be used irrespective of whether all of the other elements are present, it is preferable to retain all of these elements to assure adequate and economical lubrication, and I contemplate exclusive use of the described parts, separately or together, or any modifications of the same which come within the scope of th appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination with a railway vehicle axle and journal, a wheel thereon, a journal bearing, an axle box receiving the journal and bearing, a lubricant cellar below the bearing and having an end wall spaced from the adjacent face of the wheel and a trough secured to the axle box below the lower edge of the bearing and extending transversely of and above said cellar end wall and arranged to drain lubricant escaping from between said bearing and journal back into said cellar.

2. In combination, a railway axle box having a side wall provided with a recess forming a downwardly facing ledge, a journal bearing received in said box above said ledge and extending beyond the end of said box, a member attached to and depending from the ledge and spaced from the inner face of said recess, and a lubricant cellar having a side wall extending upwardly into the space between said member and the inner face of said recess, said cellar having an end wall, and said member extending transversely of and above said end wall and forming an upwardly facing trough for receiving lubricant discharged from the end portion of said bearing and draining it back to the interior of said cellar.

3. In combination with a railway axle box having a side wall and a lubricator cellar having a side wall and an end wall, an upwardly facing trough secured to said box side wall and projecting downwardly therefrom inwardly of said cellar side wall and extending transversely of andover said cellar end wall to catch lubricant flowing downwardly over said box side wall and drain it back into the cellar.

4. In combination, a railway vehicle axle journal box having a recess in its top and side walls arranged to receive a journal bearing and terminating in an upwardly facing ledge in each box side wall for seating the lower side edges of the journal bearing, each of said side walls having a recess below said ledge to receive a side wall of a lubricator cellar, said side wall recess providing a downwardly facing ledge spaced below said first-mentioned ledge, a member secured to said side wall and depending from the edge of said downwardly facing ledge and extending lengthwise of the box beyond the end of the box and arranged to drain lubricant escaping from between said bearing and journal back into said cellar, and a filler element forming an extension of the box side wall between said depending member and the horizontal plane of the upwardly facing ledge.

5. A structure as described in claim 2 in which the trough-forming elements extend outwardly from the cellar to the plane of the end of the journal bearing, there being a filler between the portions of the journal bearing and the troughforming elements Which extend outwardly from the end of the axle box side wall.

6. A structure as described in claim 1 in which the journal opposing face of the bearing is provided with a channel extending inwardly and downwardly from the outer end thereof near the lower side of the bearing and above the trough with its lower end terminating inwardly of the cellar beyond the inner end of said trough.

7. A structure as described in claim 1 in which the journal opposing face of the bearing includes a peripheral groove spaced inwardly of the box from the outer end of the bearing and from the inner end of the trough, and the bearing face is provided with a channel extending inwardly and downwardly from the outer end thereof near the lower side of the bearing and above the trough with its inner end merging with said groove beyond the inner end of said trough.

8. A structure as described in claim 1 in which the bearing is provided with a peripheral recess extending inwardly from its outer end and with a peripheral groove spaced inwardly from said recess and beyond the inner end of the trough and coacting therewith to form a peripheral rib, said bearing also having a channel extending inwardly and downwardly from the outer end thereof across said recess and rib and merging at its inner end with said peripheral groove and beyond the inner end of the trough.

9. A structure for recapturing surplus lubricant between a railway axle journal and an arouate bearing thereon comprising a cellar below said journal and having an outer end wall, said bearing having an end portion extending outwardly beyond the vertical plane of said wall and provided with a peripheral recess extending from its outer end inwardly beyond said plane and provided with a peripheral groove spaced inwardly from said recess and coacting. therewith to form a peripheral rib, and there being an inwardly and downwardly inclined channel cutting across the bottom of said recess and through said rib near the lower edge of the bearing and terminating with said groove.

10. In combination with a railway vehicle wheeled axle and journal, a journal bearing, an axle box receiving the journal and bearing and provided with a lubricant cellar below the bearing having an end wall spaced inwardly from the outer end of the bearing, the journal opposing face of the bearing being provided with'a lubriwardly and downwardly from the outer end of 5 the bearing near the lower edge thereof with its inner end merging with said groove.

11. A railway axle journal bearing having an end portion provided with a peripheral recess and with a peripheral groove spaced inwardly of the 10 journal from the inner end of said recess and cooperating with said recess to form a peripheral rib having a journal engaging face, there being an inwardly and downwardly inclined channel cutting across the bottom of said recess and through said rib and terminating with its lower end merging with the lower portion of said groove.

JAS. J. HENNESSY. 

